The Hoodlum

Playing one of the coldest scumbags in the noir cycle, Lawrence Tierney stars alongside his real-life brother in Max Nosseck’s low-budget, barely-an-hour The Hoodlum. The story’s an old noir standby — ex-con gets sucked back into a life of crime — but Vincent Lubeck’s (Tierney) heartlessness, especially toward his own family, makes this variation a particularly nasty experience: Lubeck kills cops, steals cars, fakes a funeral, mocks his mother’s home, and repays his brother (Edward Tierney) for hiring him at the family gas station by knocking him out cold, impregnating his fiancée, and robbing the bank across the street. Only his mother (a fantastic Lisa Golm), who had begged the parole board for his early release, is capable of loving Vincent unconditionally, but even that may evaporate by the end (“You should have cried a long time ago, to wash that poison out of your heart”). There’s nothing fancy about the film, but viewers who like their noir extra harsh and extra gritty will fall in love with Lubeck’s hate.